Distillation

At Worthy Park stands a double-retort pot still from Forsyths, a Scottish coppersmith. The copper kettle distils batch by batch. Behind it hang two smaller vessels, the retorts, where vapour and liquid meet once more, so that even a single pass delivers a high-proof distillate.

Rum-Bar Overproof comes from stills like these. According to the trade, it's a blend of three unaged pot still rums bottled at 63% ABV. It was the new distillery's first rum, launched in 2007, distilled on the grounds of the sugar estate.

Clarendon houses both distilling methods under one roof. The older section holds two pot stills, the newer one column stills. The column runs continuously, separates the alcohol more cleanly from congeners, and delivers a lighter spirit than the kettle. What proportion the distillery supplies of each depends on its customers' orders, since most of its output leaves as bulk rum for other brands. The trade press names Captain Morgan as one of them.

Since 2012, Clarendon has bottled a small portion under its own brand. This rum is called Monymusk, and it was the distillery's first release under its own name.

At New Yarmouth too, copper pot stills and columns work side by side. The Jamaica geographical indication expressly permits pot still, column, and blends of the two. According to the producer, water for Wray & Nephew White Overproof flows through Jamaican limestone before the rum is bottled at 63% ABV, or 126 proof by the US measure.